Buying ASOS Clothing from Cape Town in 2025
If you’ve visited my previous blog Boring Cape Town Chick, you’ll know I’m an avid ASOS shopper and have been supporting the e-commerce store for over 10 years. I personally find shopping in a malls a pain as going to multiple stores and having to sift through thousands of pieces (that aren’t your size), is a waste of time and pretty uncomfortable. The day shops sort their catalogues by sizes is the day I’ll be happy!
Until then, I’ll continue to shop on ASOS and have fun, funky, fresh threads delivered to my door – even if it costs a small fortune. I last shopped on ASOS a few weeks ago and was finding it quite frustrating as they had removed the courier option which, in my opinion, is the only way to shop. Waiting 4 months for the container ship to arrive was fine in my earlier days, but with crime what it is, getting it within a week is worth the extra expense.
Shipping ASOS to Cape Town
- DAY 1 – Sat, 12th Oct 2024 – Order Date
- Cost: £106.29 or R2,457.37. (I take it over £100 so I can get a discount on the shipping.)
- DAY 3 – Mon, 14th Oct 2024 – Courier Notification at 7:51am.
- SkyNet Worldwide Express is now the mandatory courier for all ASOS orders to South Africa.
- Import Duties: R1 794.13 – paid and acknowledged by SkyCouriers at 09:48am. (73% of the clothing cost.)
- ASOS Confirms order at 11:02am (3 hours later as my payment had been acknowledged.)
- DAY4 – Tue, 15th Oct 2024 – Reached out to them as they needed my ID but I’d already submitted the online form with the information required. Never received a response.
- DAY 5 – Wed, 16th Oct 2024 – Arrived in South Africa at 13:45pm.
- I received a message saying the Department of Health was holding it due to the makeup items I’d bought (one was a primer aka liquid).
- They say it will take 72 hours to clear. So if you want it sooner – don’t buy makeup!
- DAY 6 – Thu, 17th Oct 2024 – Package on hold in Johannesburg.
- Waiting for, “On Hold – Customs – Awaiting Customs Clearance” for 5 days.
- DAY 11 – Mon, 21st Oct 2024 – Leaves custom in Joburg.
- DAY 12 -Tue, 22nd Oct 2024 – Arrives at Joburg hub and leaves for Cape Town hub, arrives at 14:04pm.
- Day 13 – Wed, 23rd Oct 2024 – Claims to deliver to me, but I was working from home all day and no one rang.
- This is where it got bad because the courier’s communication just went dead.
- No communication from the courier to explain or make an arrangement.
- Day 19 – Tue, 29th Oct 2024 – Finally delivered to me.
What’s Inside and is it Worth It?
My order included 1 x men’s t-shirt, 2 makeup items, 6 dresses, 2 skirts and 1 jumpsuit. So I consider the cost to be R4 251.50 (R1 794.13 + R2 457.37) for 11 items. This essentially makes it R386.50 per item which is WELL worth it.
You’ll also notice – I only buy affordable items on sale. Most of these dresses were double the cost, but then went on sale, which makes it worth while. I’d never pay double for these items (cost when not on sale). My “shopping maths” is to double the cost. So would I pay £8 (R184.96 x 2 = R369.91) for that jumpsuit? Absolutely – and I did!
Last Thoughts
The fact that it took 3 times as long to get to me as it did for the ASOS shipment to get to South Africa is WILD. But the courier service doesn’t care because they don’t consider it “their problem”. The consumer just has to suck it up and we always do because we want our cute outfits!
This is also the second international order for the year and I think it gets more expensive the more you order. Ultimately, the quality of the clothes far outweigh the quality in South Africa for price and uniqueness. I get compliments all the time and it’s such a pleasure to wear clothes that fit my age and body shape.
Happy Shopping!
